New report confirms more of Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye in the MCU

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I've always felt a little sorry for Jeremy Renner and his place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even though we don't really need to feel sorry for someone who has a place in one of the biggest superhero movie franchises ever. Of all the Avengers on the team so far, though, he's had the least to do. In The Avengers he was working with the bad guys for half the movie, and while his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. operative and close friend Black Widow got to hang out with Captain America in last year's The Winter Soldier, Hawkeye sat outthat particular adventure to make room for Cap's new buddy, Falcon.

Now Avengers: Age of Ultron is looming, and we don't really know what to expect from Hawkeye yet, apart from a new costume. We've ben told we'll get more of him, but I've actually seen some fans on Twitter speculating (especially after the most recent trailer's hints that the team might not survive the battle intact) that Hawkeye might not make it out of that film alive, and that the "more" we're supposedly getting from the character is his exit from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Well, it seems we can put that to rest, because Hawkeye is sticking around.

On Friday, the Hollywood Reporter ran a story announcing that Renner and Amy Adams are set to star together in the sci-fi drama Story of Your Life, an adaptation of a short story by Ted Chiang. The story was, of course, mostly devoted to that upcoming collaboration, but it also included this:

"He will shoot Captain America: Civil War this spring, then segue to Story of Your Life in mid-June..."

That seems to confirm what Renner teased as a possibility months ago: That he'll be joining Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans in the third Captain America flick, which looks set to pit Cap against Tony Stark in some kind of ideological battle spinning out of the events of Age of Ultron. Captain America: The Winter Soldier directors Joe and Anthony Russo are returning to helm the film, and they've got a lot to handle, because these days the project is looking less like a Cap movie and more like Avengers 2.5. In addition to Downey, Evans and, now, Renner, the film will also feature Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Anthony Mackie as Falcon and Chadwick Boseman as the much-anticipated Black Panther. It also seems to be the place where Marvel will debut the new incarnation of Spider-Man.

So, for the moment, it seems Renner's Marvel movie future is settled. Now, if only we could get him a Netflix series in which Hawkeye hangs out with a dog and tries to hook up his DVR ...